Combined Viewpoints - part 3

Last night students began arranging their tracing paper sketches and drawing the larger image.    Here is another example of the project from a previous semester. Take note of the dynamics of the composition by using repetition, implied diagonals and cropping to enclose the negative space.  The rendering of the metallic surface adds a strong textural/ material quality.

Drawings must be finished and ready to critique for Tuesday's class.

Combined Viewpoints - part 2

Thursday night we will continue to the second part of our final project.  Students will arrange their tracing paper sketches to compose a new form.  Think in terms of the object making a metamorphosis.  The sketches will overlap (hence the tracing paper), but up against, get torn and rearranged, drawn on and erased.  Once a pleasing form has been established, students will draw the "combined viewpoints" form onto 18 x 24 in. paper.  The goal is not to copy the sketches but to use them as a starting point.  Here are two finished drawings by past students. The drawing at the top started as a vintage hair dryer.  The other drawing was a vintage meat grinder.

Combined Viewpoints - part 1

Tuesday night.  We started the first part of our final project --Combined Viewpoints.  Students were given six sheets of tracing paper 7 x 9 in., an object, and about twenty minutes to draw for each piece of paper.  This is how it worked.  Students made a contour line drawing of their object on the tracing paper.  After twenty minutes, the object was adjusted a quarter turn and students drew the object again on a second piece of tracing paper.  We did this six times.  The result was a series of drawings showing different views of the object turning in space. 

Portfolios and DHR were collected.  I also made a final review of sketch books.

Division of the Field - continued

Thursday night students continued with their "Division of the Field" project.  Students were to draw a large scale drawing (18 x 24 in.) from their studies or to come up with something new.  See previous photo for example.

PORTFOLIOS AND DHR DUE DECEMBER 8
1. Midterm Drawing
2. Dinosaur
3. (Simulated Texture) Homage to Magritte
4. INK Studies
5. Self-portrait
6. Color
7 Division of Field

Compositional Space: Division of the Field

Tuesday evening we discussed compositional strategies for dividing up the "field" aka "picture plane".  The lecture addressed relationships of "figure/ ground", left/right and top/bottom.  After reviewing slides of images exhibiting the various strategies, often employing multiple strategies in one image, students made "sketchbook" drawings of their own.  The assignment was to go around the classroom and Analy Hall looking for areas to draw using the compositional strategies discussed in the lecture. The objective was to look for relationships, patterns and extraordinary points of view.  In other words, "Make Something Out of Nothing".  Students were encouraged to draw from under tables, lying down and sitting on furniture.  In addition to vantage point, students were asked to pay attention to their mark-making technique and style as well as suggesting a sense of "narrative".   The student drawing above employs a right to left dominance.

Colored Pencil Drawings

Thursday evening we started working with colored pencils.  In the first example shown, the drawing was initiated in red.  Next, I went over all the red with blue.  And lastly I went over the red and blue areas excluding the contours with yellow.  Notice that the yellow doesn't cover the entire skull.  Some areas utilize the tone of the paper for highlights.  In the scribble gesture drawing, again I started with red, switching to blue and then yellow.  At that point, I began to alternate more rapidly between the colors.  Being a gestural approach to drawing, I tried to maintain the energy and spontaneity not only with the mark-making but with the color handling as well.  As I approached completion of the drawing, I added the black with yellow on top.  Finishing a drawing with a warm color like yellow is a great way to add a sense of luminosity and depth, not unlike "glazing" in painting.  In Arianna Preston's drawing (cow skull), she has separated the warm and cool colors which gives the drawing a sense  of time and place.  As in the last glowing rays of the sun as it sets.

Self-Portraits

Tuesday night we continued working with the "face".  This time focusing on self-portraits.  First, students worked up the background (negative space) by creating some atmospheric marks and swashes or toning the whole paper with charcoal.  The portrait it self was drawn in charcoal.

Homework is to draw a couple of scribble gestures with ball point pen (self-portrait).

NEXT CLASS: Bring colored pencils: crimson red, ultramarine blue, canary yellow, black.